Requisitos para implementación del sistema de gestión integrado de calidad,

provide rebates and other incentives to overcome barriers to individuals making investments in energy efficiency and renewable energy investments.

The PSC should review these programs in light of the 2015 program expiration date and extend them to provide longer-term market certainty. In addition, the next step in New York’s energy efficiency program should be to leverage additional private sector investment through public-private financing mechanisms. In 2012 New York launched a state-wide on-bill financing program that is still in its infancy. This program, administered by NYSERDA, allows electricity and natural gas customers to make energy efficiency improvements in residential, small commercial, not-for-profit, and multifamily structures through a loan from NYSERDA that is paid back through energy savings and a surcharge on utility bills. The program requires that the energy savings each month are greater than the loan repayment surcharge. To grow this program, the State should encourage the private sector to participate in the financing of these loans.

Diversify fuels in the transportation sector

New York’s transportation sector is 97% dependent on petroleum fuels to power passenger and commercial freight movement. Such single fuel dependency reduces system resiliency. The impacts to disruptions in the fuels distribution system may have profound effects on the ability to move people and maintain commerce.

This danger is compounded by the fact that petroleum is not produced or refined in New York, leaving New York vulnerable to disruptions caused by storm events or other incidents outside of New York.

To reduce that vulnerability, New York should continue to pursue opportunities to increase diversity in the fuels used to power its transportation sector, and target programmatic opportunities that foster new technologies and alternate fuels. Some of these alternate fuel opportunities can

be found in turning to electricity, natural gas and low-carbon sustainable biofuels that can be produced using materials such as switchgrass. Near-term opportunities exist for government and commercial fleet vehicles, including expanding use of E-85 (ethanol 85%, gasoline 15%), LNG, compressed natural gas (CNG), hybrid, and electric vehicles.

New York is building on the success of the regional approach created through Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) to foster new transportation policies, programs and projects through the Transportation and Climate Initiative (TCI), an 11-state plus District of Columbia initiative to advance alternate transportation fuels, in the integrated Northeastern fuels markets.

The TCI has adopted a comprehensive approach to transportation alternatives, and is looking at a suite of policies to reduce the use of petroleum, including alternate fuels opportunities provided by electric and natural gas vehicles.

Alternative fuels can be expanded in the transportation sector. The State should explore mechanisms to develop higher biodiesel usage in diesel fuels, supporting development of E-85 (ethanol 85%, gasoline 15%) usage by consumers, and use of LNG, CNG, hybrid, and electric vehicles (particularly in government and commercial fleets).^g

New York should continue to examine whether regulatory policies can help to foster increased use of alternative fuels.

States in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic region have engaged in analytical work to determine whether a clean fuels standard, if adopted across all the Northeastern states, provides environmental benefits as well as economic opportunity to increase the use of alternate fuels. While California has implemented a clean fuel standard, New York should continue to track whether this approach, or a modified variation targeted to increased use of electric and natural

g Provided that fugitive methane emissions associated with the use of LNG/CNG vehicles are minimized.

gas-fueled vehicles, could provide a viable program platform for adoption across the region.

Support alternative fuels across all sectors

In the transportation sector, implementing a clean fuels program could promote fuel diversity, cut local air pollution and help prevent transportation fuel types from getting more carbon intensive. New York should begin to track the carbon intensity of the existing fuel mix it uses,

including gasoline, diesel, ethanol and other alternative fuel supply and should adopt ‘no-backsliding’ measures on carbon intensity. These measures keep the fuel mix from getting dirtier (e.g., fuel providers should have a disincentive for increasing the carbon intensity of the fuel they sell).

The State, including NYSERDA and the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), should explore ways to create incentives that cut, or at a minimum, maintain the carbon intensity of the fuel mix. This could lead to fuel diversification

that increases domestic energy security and reduces overall fuel costs and price fluctuations.

There are diversification opportunities across all energy consuming sectors in New York. In the power sector, diversification that supports more distributed power resources helps to build resiliency for power supplies that are not dependent on central station power plants. Such diversification should be explored for high-efficiency, alternate power generation opportunities Figure E-20: Power plants in New York State by fuel source in and out of the 500 year flood zone (NYSDPS, 2011; NYSDEC, 2012)

that continue to use conventional fuels, including applications for microgrids and/

or cogeneration technologies that support industrial use complexes. Distributed configurations that can look to combinations of renewable generation with energy storage backup capability should also be explored.

In the waste and agriculture sector, New York should continue to pursue energy production options that provide both energy and waste minimization benefits. For example, there is potential to introduce biogas produced from sewage treatment infrastructure, landfills and waste-to-energy infrastructure into the natural gas pipeline. This biogas (after treatment) could provide a local, renewable energy source, or could be processed into CNG and used for transportation fleets (bus or vehicle) or backup fuel power.

Enabling alternative fuels and energy such as biogas and wind and solar electrification provides benefits to local air quality and GHG reduction. For the agriculture and food processing sectors, expanded use of anaerobic digesters can continue to provide the dual benefits of on-site energy resources coupled with effective waste management practices. New York should also support new economic opportunities for the agriculture sector in the form of dedicated energy crops, such as switchgrass and willow, on underutilized land.

In the buildings sector, for home heating oil, greater efficiencies or energy conversion to lower-carbon fuels can be combined

with weatherization efforts so that smaller amounts of heating fuels provide higher levels of heating capacity. When combined with on-site renewable options such as solar thermal, these combined renewable energy and energy efficiency opportunities can initiate more holistic approaches to home and commercial buildings energy use, and provide opportunities for GHG reductions.

Lastly, increased research, development, and deployment of micro-combined heat and power (CHP) options and other solutions should be pursued to capture potential improvements for on-site heating systems.

Lower the greenhouse gas cap through RGGI

One primary strategy to promote a cleaner energy supply is to further lower the GHG emission cap through the existing RGGI.

This will, in turn, increase funding for cleaner supply projects.

RGGI is a groundbreaking nine-state program designed to cap, and reduce, power sector carbon pollution which contributes to climate change. RGGI has been in place for three years, with emissions from the power sector dropping well below the existing cap.

This is due to a variety of factors including reduced economic activity, the low price of natural gas and energy efficiency measures.

Lower emissions have reduced the demand

for allowances. Allowances are selling at the minimum price and nearly half remain unsold. The current system is no longer driving emission reductions and investments in climate action have dwindled.

RGGI states are now evaluating options for increasing its effectiveness. Reducing the cap can restore RGGI’s ability to reduce carbon pollution, and proceeds from the sale of allowances can be used for clean energy programs and transitioning communities to a lower-carbon future.

State legislation proposed by Governor Cuomo in 2012 would help to accomplish this recommendation. The Clean Energy and Economic Revitalization Act of 2012 would have authorized the use of RGGI proceeds generated as a result of a lower RGGI cap, for emission reduction projects in the power sector (e.g., renewable energy deployment or re-powering). The bill would have also provided municipal assistance and created additional revenue for other uses. By implementing measures to reduce GHG emissions through the RGGI auction, revenue will be generated for New York State that can be used to fund investments in modernizing the grid and expanding renewable energy, in addition to lowering emissions. The Commission recommends that the State work with other states in the Northeast to lower the RGGI cap.

There is a lack of young members of the workforce with skills in the energy sector. Several utilities have identified and addressed a major risk affecting their long-term planning, namely the high percentage of employees that are nearing retirement age, and who have a great amount of experience that is hard to transfer to younger employees. A recent study showed that more than 20% of New York’s utility employees are over the age of 55.²⁷ Exacerbating this problem is that while there are many skilled employees with one to five years of experience, there are not nearly enough with ten to fifteen years — the managerial and skilled tradespeople who would normally have the plant experience and skills to move into more senior positions vacated by retirees.

This problem has arisen in part due to the difficulty in retaining young employees.

Without a skilled pool of workers to draw from, New York State will be unable to meet the demands of the energy system. The problem is exacerbated when considering the upgrades, repairs and new construction that are required to protect our energy infrastructure. Further complications due to labor shortages will arise when the energy system experiences stresses that cause disruption to services.

The State needs to be able to provide enough skilled energy workers from within its own borders to repair damage to equipment and reestablish service. Growing the pool of available skilled workers will put the State in a position to handle the current and future needs of its energy system during normal conditions and when extreme weather events disable the system.

A concerted effort should be made by the State Department of Education, the State University of New York (SUNY) and the City University of New York (CUNY) programs, Regional Planning Boards, the New York State Department of Labor, NYSERDA, and industry groups to develop

Develop long-term career training and a skilled energy